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A decade of donations

Ireland Donates €70 Million to Emergency Appeals

It was announced today that Ireland has donated more than €70 million to Red Cross emergency appeals over the last 10 years. Speaking at the Irish Red Cross in Dublin, Annita Underlin - Director of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent’s Europe Zone, said that, ‘the generosity of the Irish public has literally changed thousands if not millions of lives around the world’.

During her visit to the Irish Red Cross, Ms Underlin paid tribute to ‘this extraordinary show of compassion for those in need’ and said that ‘families whose homes had washed away, children who had no chance of survival, communities with no income, food or hope, now have homes, have food and have hope for their future’.

The Irish Red Cross has run over 20 emergency appeals in the last decade, to which the Irish public have responded in a most generous way. In that time, the public has assisted those affected by the Bam Earthquake in Iran, the conflict in Darfur, the school siege in Beslan, Russia, food shortages in Malawi and Niger, the 2004 Asian Tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, flooding in Pakistan, the 2011 Tsunami in Japan, flooding in Ireland and most recently Typhoon Washi in the Philippines.

Ms Underlin was speaking during a visit to the Irish Red Cross headquarters in Dublin, where she is advising the Society on the development of a new 5-year strategic plan.

“The Irish Red Cross has played a vital role in channelling the generosity of the Irish people and is ambitious to sustain that success. We in the International Red Cross movement are here to support their efforts in every way possible.”

In Ireland the Irish Red Cross has a network of 5,000 volunteers who assist communities throughout the country. Programmes in Ireland focus on community care and responding to domestic emergencies such as the 2011floods. For more information please see www.redcross.ie.